The astroturf party

National has finally rolled out its "BlueGreen" astroturf party, fronted by an array of former nats and people who were dumped by the Greens for not being Green enough. Its initial pitch is described by Stuff as "very business-friendly", and its priorities are what you'd expect: conservation, predator-free funding, a "war on weeds". But what does it have to say about climate change, the biggest environmental problem facing the country and the planet? Nothing useful:

"We will work with rather than against our farmers and industry.

"We are not prophets of doom. We are an optimistic party."

He said New Zealand should "lead where we can" on climate change but not "suffer serious economic consequences as a result of that".

He supported agriculture going into the Emissions Trading Scheme at some point in the future, saying farmers had to be protected.

So this is basicly a climate inaction party - just like their backers. They're about watering the garden while the planet burns.

National hopes that this sort of greenwash will win enough votes from the Greens to either provide them with a new coalition handpuppet to replace David Seymour, or (their preferred option) drive both parties below the 5% threshold, removing the environmental voice from Parliament and restoring FPP by default. But either would require Green voters to like the policies on offer. And to be honest, I don't think this is going to fool anyone.